Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language)

Where: Flagship

Cinemas New

Bedford, AMC Dartmouth Mall 12, Flagship Cinemas Wareham

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Five criminals — including a raccoon and a giant plant/tree creature — are standing in a lineup.

Captor 1: "They call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy."

Captor 2: "What a bunch of A-holes."

Exactly. And that's what makes Marvel's outer-space action-comedy "Guardians of the Galaxy" so hilariously entertaining.

The five are:

Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), the leader, a self-styled "legendary outlaw" who calls himself Star-Lord, though no one else does.

Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a sexy green assassin, and the only one in the group who isn't a knucklehead.

Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a muscular hulk who's out to avenge his murdered family. He takes everything literally.

Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper), the raccoon, a car thief with anger issues.

Groot (voice of Vin Diesel), described as "Rocket's houseplant/muscle," who can only say one thing: "I am Groot."

True to their name, these five misfits join forces to try to save the galaxy by keeping a powerful orb, stolen by Peter, out of the hands of the bloodthirsty villain Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace).

That's really all you need to know about the typical comic-book plot. What separates "Guardians of the Galaxy" from the sci-fi pack isn't the story, but the characters — their sarcasm, their quirks, their rebellious attitude, their foolishness.

Director James Gunn and his co-screenwriter Nicole Perlman deliver just about nonstop laughs. If "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" movies sometime lapse into self-reverential seriousness, "Guardian" warp-speeds off into the opposite direction: It's a goof, it knows it, and it's the better for it.

Pratt, of TV's "Parks and Recreation," sets the tone with his engaging performance. His Quill is the film's Han Solo, only not quite as cocky and a lot more insecure. He's constantly listening to a mixed tape of '70s hits his mother made him when he was a kid — an amusing, endearing habit. (Even the songs that normally would make me cringe — Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling," Rupert Holmes' "Escape (the Pina Colada Song)" — work here, and any soundtrack with the Runaway's "Cherry Bomb" can't be all bad.)

Rocket the raccoon steals the picture though, thanks largely to Cooper's uproarious tough-guy vocal delivery. And though you might think Groot's one line, "I am Groot," would get old after being repeated a bunch of times, it just gets funnier. Timing is everything, and here the timing is just right.

There's already a sequel in the works, and, honestly, I just can't wait. This might turn out to be the best comic-book-turned-movie franchise ever.